Raja Hindustani was the third most commercially successful Hindi film of the 1990s.[8] Made on a budget of ₹57.5 million, the film went on to gross ₹763.4 million worldwide,[9] becoming the highest grossing film of the year.[10] The film's music became popular and was successful especially in central and eastern states of India.[11] Karisma Kapoor was complimented for her looks and performance as Aarti, a rich beautiful sensitive young girl full of dreams and desires.[12] She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her role.[12] The film was remade in Kannada as Naanu Naane in 2002 starring Upendra and Sakshi Shivanand in lead roles.

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The title character, Raja Hindustani (Aamir Khan), is a taxi-driver / tourist guide. He lives by his own simple code and is prone to violence when that code is violated. Aarti Sehgal (Karisma Kapoor) is a wealthy debutante who is seeking to connect with her past. Standing in the way of their love are a disapproving father and a stepmother bent on obtaining total control of the family assets.

Wealthy Mr. Sehgal (Suresh Oberoi) lives with his daughter, Aarti, and her stepmother Shalini (Archana Puran Singh) in a palatial home. Aarti decides to go for a vacation to a small hill station named Palankhet to discover the memories of her dead mother. Upon arrival, she finds out she has no transportation from the airport to Palankhet (few location in Ranikhet also). As a result, she hires the services of the only available driver, Raja Hindustani. During her stay in Palankhet, Aarti and Raja fall in love. One day, to Aarti's surprise, her father arrives in Palankhet and intends to take her home with him. Her father will accept the marriage on the condition that Raja come to Mumbai and learn to become a respectable member of society. Raja refuses and forces Aarti to make a decision. Aarti chooses Raja, but begs for her father's blessings. Her father refuses to offer his blessings and leaves for Mumbai.

After some time, Mr. Sehgal forgives his daughter, and visits her in Palankhet. While there, he gifts his daughter and son-in-law a new house. Raja refuses to live in the house because he does not see the house as a gift, but rather as alms, since he is poor and Mr. Sehgal is rich. Shalini, her brother, Swaraj (Pramod Moutho), and her nephew Jai (Mohnish Behl) seek to exploit this conflict to gain total control of Mr. Sehgal's assets. Under the pretext of a birthday party, they bring Raja and Aarti to Mumbai and set in motion events that will change all their lives forever. As a result, Aarti and Raja separate. Aarti was pregnant but due to her health problems the doctor forbids her to go to Palankhet and instead her stepmother is asked to go to Palankhet to inform Raja about his baby and to request him to come to Mumbai. However, instead Aarti's stepmother chooses to tell Raja that Aarti wants to divorce him but Raja refuses, and back in Mumbai even Aarti refuses to give Raja divorce. After sometime Raja comes to know that Aarti has a baby so he goes to Aarti's house and steals the baby. But Aarti cannot live without her baby so she comes to Raja's house begging for her baby where they all learn the truth that Aarti's stepmother is the culprit. When Raja returns home with the baby he sees Aarti and starts to run away but in the road there is a fight between Aarti's step-uncle and Raja for the capture of the baby as Aarti 's step-uncle wants to kill the baby but Aarti 's step-uncle loses at last; Aarti and Raja reunite.

Film critic Anupama Chopra while reviewing the film for India Today wrote, "the film is disappointingly dated but Darshan scores with his music-catchy Pardesi, pardesi — and with his leading lady, Karisma."[13] She went on to praise Kapoor's performance saying, "Karisma looks stunning and acts surprisingly well. She is the lifeblood of this otherwise banal film."[13]

Although Raja Hindustani earned ₹871.5 million worldwide,[14] after adjusting inflation its worldwide gross reaches ₹3.79 billion,[9] making it the third highest grossing Hindi film of the 1990s.[8]Box Office India declared it an "All time blockbuster".[15][16][17]

The soundtrack was composed by Nadeem-Shravan. Planet Bollywood ranks the film's soundtrack at 56 in its all-time top 100 greatest Bollywood soundtracks.[18]

It consisted of tracks like "Kitna Pyara Tujhe Rab Ne" (which is translated from the Punjabi song "Kinna Sohna Tenu Rab Ne Banaya" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan), "Aaye Ho Meri Zindagi Mein" which had become an immensely popular wedding song and Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik's "Pardesi Pardesi" which was a major chartbuster at the time and which also led to the film's success. The album became the best selling Bollywood soundtrack of the year by a wide margin.[19]

Aniket Joshi of Planet Bollywood gave the album a rating of 9.5 out of 10 stating, "Raja Hindustani is a must for lovers of good ever lasting melody."[20] The soundtrack album sold 11 million copies, and is one of the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack albums of all time.[19] It was the third best selling album of the 1990s after Aashiqui and Dil To Pagal Hai.[19]